


steal the sun

by Losha



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Apparently up to and including mentoring his pain in the ass younger self, BAMF Nara Shikamaru, Canon Relationships, Canon-Typical Violence, Chakra Chains, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Gen, M/M, Non-Canon Relationship, Original Character(s), Post-Canon, Shikamaru would do a lot for Naruto, There will probably be f/f and m/m later, Time Travel, mentoring, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2018-11-05 19:05:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11019663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Losha/pseuds/Losha
Summary: A year into Naruto’s leadership as the Nanadaime, Shikamaru dies. Then he’s alive, in Konoha again, and about 17 years too old to really blend in. It’s inconvenient to the extreme, but... If he’s already here, he may as well change a few things along the way.





	1. less than none

**Chapter 1 - less than none**

When Shikamaru first becomes aware again after what should have been his death, he feels relief. The antiseptic smell of the hospital is not familiar per se - Shikamaru has been lucky in life that most of his friends rarely end up there - but it is easily recognizable.

So Sakura saved him. Good. Naruto, Temari, Shikadai… None of them would have to mourn him just yet. Shikamaru never wants his son to have to experience loss like he had with Asuma-sensei, and Naruto has lost enough in his life. To keep that pain from his loved ones, Shikamaru would gladly face the nagging that was to come, just as he had willingly faced down his possible death earlier, to -

To buy Naruto time.

Shikamaru does not open his eyes, but he rapidly begins to take stock of his surroundings, which suddenly no longer feel safe.

As first adviser to the Hokage, Shikamaru would have been high in priority for healing, but to warrant a _private room_ with - he sensed - two ANBU guarding it and no noisily bickering visitors? Shikamaru has never been so lucky. Additionally, the atmosphere is all wrong. Shikamaru had seen the devastation that had been wrought in the first three explosions that took the village by surprise - he doubts there is anywhere in all of Konoha that doesn’t carry the smell of dust and blood. But the air here smells normal, and the temperature is cool.

Years ago, Sakura and C of Kumogakure presented a study to the heads of each of the five villages’ hospitals on air temperature as it related to healing. Warm, moist air close to body temperature was the ideal condition for cellular recovery, Sakura had explained to his family over dinner one evening.

(She’d also traitorously brought evil into his home and turned his family against him.

“Spicy food is good for the immune system, Shikamaru,” the medic-nin said, giving him a bag of peppers Sasuke had picked up and sent back from Suna.

Shikamaru, who hated spicy things only marginally less than he hated Sasuke Uchiha, strongly considered throwing them in the trash where they belonged. But Temari looked so excited, he reluctantly accepted the gift.

“Is that so?” Temari asked, casting a smug look in his direction.

He knew where this was going. “I’m not eating it,” he said firmly.

He ate it. They all ate it. Shikadai had been _delighted_ and insisted on sharing some with Boruto. Temari had glowed with love for her homeland. Shikamaru might have cried. His only consolation had been the pinched look on Sakura’s face and how he’d caught her using iryo-ninjutsu to heal her mouth immediately afterwards. Temari had laughed for _ages_ at the pair of them.

“You Leaf-nin,” she'd said fondly.)

The Rokudaime hadn’t really understood at the time why a few degrees in temperature mattered, but he’d indulged his former student when the hospital head, Yakushi, put the matter forward for final approval. Energy costs and the length of postoperative stays decreased. Konoha, Kumo, and Mizu’s hospitals had all maintained an air temperature close to body temperature ever since. Knowing that, Shikamaru could therefore infer that he was not in either of those three hospitals.

Yet the ANBU guarding him were using Konohagakure techniques to mask their presence.

Intrigued despite himself, Shikamaru opens his eyes.

“Troublesome,” he sighs out when the first ANBU flashes into sight.

Long purple hair just past her bust, feline ANBU mask, tanned skin of both arms bare except for the tattoo on one arm. Yuugao Uzuki, he catalogues, having determined the identities of more than 60% of the ANBU forces over the last year in his determination to ensure that Naruto would only have the best protection as Hokage. But she is not how he last saw her: older, tired, with ropy burn scars along her shoulder and upper arm down to where the stark white prosthetic began. The old kenjutsu expert had been Naruto’s “awesome fake arm twin.” Now she is young and whole.

“Do not attempt to move,” the woman warns. “You are under the authority of Konohagakure. Try anything and you will be killed.” The other ANBU’s presence temporarily vanishes, before returning.

_We’ll have company soon,_ Shikamaru notes. “Can I sit up?” he asks calmly.

“Slowly.”

He nods. Slowly isn’t a problem. Now that he is moving, it’s like his body is remembering it was just on the brink of death. His life threatening wounds have been healed; those he could survive with marginal risk of infection have not been. He’d assumed before that Sakura had been conserving her chakra for handling the disaster in the village. Now he knows otherwise. He is being treated like an intruder.

He eyes Yuugao. “While we wait for whoever your partner alerted - Ibiki Morino, I’m guessing? - mind if I make a request? Call in Inoichi Yamanaka and Shikaku Nara.”

“And why would those men want to see you?” the ANBU asks tonelessly.

“Any Yamanaka could verify my information,” Shikamaru admits easily. “I just prefer that man. As for the other, well, I wanted you to verify a theory I had.”

Yuugao, if possible, becomes even more still. “And what theory is that?”

Before he can answer, several ANBU presences join them. Seconds later, the door opens and Shikamaru finds himself meeting the impassive stare of a man who has been dead 17 years, the Sandaime Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi.

That confirms it. Shikamaru grimaces and wonders if anyone would risk giving him a cigarette. If ever there was a time to smoke, now would be it. “Well,” he says, because everyone is staring at him, “it’s kind of a drag, but either the afterlife is really weird... Or I’d say I’ve somehow ended up in the past.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for taking the time to read the first chapter of Steal the Sun! This fic was in large part inspired by the song of the same title by Miyavi. Check it out sometime!
> 
>  
> 
> **Regarding this story:**  
>  Shikamaru's original timeline takes place approximately a year after Naruto became the Nanadaime. I am going with 29 as an age for Shikamaru, based on rough guesstimates of everyone's ages, including the kids, in the inauguration episode. This might be totally wrong, I'm not sure, but I'm going to roll with it. Timelines and Naruto don't exactly go well together as a rule anyway.
> 
> As the story progresses, and Shikamaru affects the world around him more, we will diverge from canon - including pairings. Nothing is set in stone yet - I'd rather see where this story takes the relationships first - but I like to write f/f, m/m, and m/f all so there's your warning in advance. I _can_ tell you this: _**Naruto/Hinata and Sasuke/Sakura will not be endgame**_. And, unless the story _really_ takes me there, _**neither will Sasuke/Naruto**_. No canon relationship, however, will be bashed in this story.
> 
> There will be no character bashing _at all_ in this story. Much like in Naruto, people are people. Sometimes they screw up, and sometimes they're childish or petty, but they learn from it (or don't) and move on. That is all.
> 
> Thank you again for reading. See you next chapter!


	2. weapon

**Chapter 2 - weapon**

“You’re being suspiciously understanding of this,” Shikamaru says to the Sandaime flatly.

It’s true. Shikamaru expected a Yamanaka in his head, he expected Ibiki Morino in his face, he expected… Well, more.

What he got instead was the Sandaime, a bland, spiky haired T&I chuunin whose personality reminded him of Shino and, weirdly, Iruka Umino, and the most circular debriefing ever. “Is this some alternate death world after all?”

“It is not,” the Sandaime says, a flicker of amusement in his tone. Shikamaru squints at him suspiciously.

It’s been hours since the questioning began, but the old man has barely moved from the chair - some ergonomic rolling beast that Ino and Sakura would’ve actually killed each other fighting over if they’d seen it - that was brought in for him. He hums in the right places and waves them on whenever his periodic shifting or old man cough disturbs the chuunin, and he puffs away at his pipe as Shikamaru sketches out, over and over and over again, a rough description of the Konoha he left behind. No matter how many times he goes over the same topics, the Sandaime listens quietly and appears fascinated.

It’s bothering the hell out of him, and not just because all that smoke is giving him cravings.

“Do not address Hokage-sama,” the T&I chuunin, Mugen, chastises him mildly. “Please only speak to me, Shikamaru-san. Will you tell me again about the explosions? You said you were in the Hokage Tower when the first one occurred? Who were you with and what were you doing in the moments leading up to the first explosion?”

That’s another thing. No one will call him Nara. He looks just like his father, minus a decade or so depending on what year this is (Nobody has been inclined to share that information, thus far, but Shikamaru hasn’t spent these hours idle. He’s narrowed it down to a four year window.), but it may as well be an interesting coincidence as far as Usui Mugen is concerned.

Fair enough. Some of that, Shikamaru knows, is designed to irritate; clan members don’t really like having their family name disregarded after all, especially supposed heirs. The rest of it is that of course nobody wants to piss off a whole clan over something as stupid as acknowledging the wrong person as part of a clan they’re _not actually from_. Mugen is willing to humor Shikamaru, but not _that_ much. It’s surprisingly irritating - Shikamaru didn’t expect that would be something that bothered him until now - but he filters it out.

This thing with the Sandaime is harder to ignore. Why is he even here? And what is it that he’s waiting for, that Shikamaru is missing, that he needs to do to end this?

Ignoring Usui’s question, Shikamaru closes his eyes and leans forward as best he can. He steeples his fingers and he begins to think. The edge of tension that rises in the room is ignored.

“What are you doing, Shikamaru-san?” Mugen asks pleasantly. He doesn’t sound worried, but who would be, with six ANBU and the Sandaime in the same room? 

A rustle of fabric. “Let him think, Usui-kun,” the Sandaime says with definite amusement this time. The old man, it seems, is curious enough to wave off the questions for now. Or has he perhaps heard about Shikamaru’s habitual pose from Asuma-sensei, if this is Shikamaru’s graduation year?

No, Shikamaru decides, just curiosity. The father and son pair were on poor terms up until the Sandaime died. Asuma-sensei had quietly confessed as much to Shikamaru once, long ago.

Is it actually the Sandaime Hokage? Shikamaru doesn’t think the man is a fake - he has that presence all Kage seem to have about them - but he only rarely met the Sandaime before his death. There’s potential for error there.

If the man _is_ a fake, he’s very good. Shikamaru examines that thought briefly. Why would Konoha bother with such a thing? Were they testing if he’d make an attempt on the Sandaime’s life when presented with an opportunity? Was that the real point of this gentle interrogation, to lure him into making a mistake by feeding him the very thing an enemy-nin might expect to see? It makes sense. Many villages had thought Konoha weak in the years of the Sandaime’s second turn under the hat. This may well be an oft-utilized trap he’s found himself stuck in.

Shikamaru blames the peace he’s enjoyed for the last decade that it took him so long to stop playing along. It seems despite his efforts to work hard as the Hokage’s adviser, he’s being lazy after all.

If this is a trap of sorts, how to get out of it? Shikamaru can think of better ways to spend his time than wasting it on a T&I nin or, if this isn’t a henge, going in circles in front of the Sandaime. And he does think it (probably) is the actual Sandaime. Maybe he didn’t know this one very well, but Shikamaru has years of experience to draw on about what sort of people Hokage tend to be: ridiculous, every damn one of them. Naruto absolutely would’ve been in this room with a random nin who appeared half-dead at the foot of the Hokage Tower, Kakashi might’ve shown up late, but he would’ve been haunting the wall _eventually_ , and Tsunade - “If you’re here to fight, then come at me. If not, start talking. I don’t have all day, and I can break those bones just as easily as I repaired them. And better. Actually, maybe don’t talk. My students could do with a pop quiz.” - Tsunade wouldn’t have bothered with any pretense whatsoever.

And every damn one of them would've tried to stay there all day to avoid aides, paperwork, and aides _with_ paperwork. 

The (probably) Sandaime hasn't made any motions thus far to draw the game to a close, so how does he checkmate the man who'd been called the God of Shinobi?

Perhaps… Yes. That might work, if he doesn't die first. Shikamaru opens his eyes and turns to look straight at the Sandaime. 

“I'm going to be honest - answering the same questions over and over again is a drag,” he says bluntly, as rude as Naruto ever was. “Especially when we both know most of this information is worthless to you. You already know the structure of most of the departments in Konoha as they stand in the future, as well as who my Hokage is. If you know Naruto at all, that should be all you need to know to understand where my loyalties lie. So cut the shit. Let’s _talk_ \- or get out and let me sleep.”

Inwardly, Shikamaru dies a thousand deaths. Outwardly, it looks like he will also die a thousand deaths based on the sudden influx of killing intent flooding the room. But Shikamaru fought Madara Uchiha, he fought Obito, and the Ten Tails, and the end of the world. He does not quail.

The Sandaime, finally, moves. A single thoughtful hum and the oppressive chakra of the ANBU is gone, leaving only charged air and a sense of weightlessness behind. The old man acts like the voiceless threat hadn't even been expressed. He just removes the pipe the hospital staff hasn’t yet had the nerve to ban him from having from his mouth and regards Shikamaru from under his hat brim. He doesn't look impressed, so Shikamaru cracks a small smirk. The expression cools further.

“You’ve been very free with your information so far, Shikamaru-kun, it’s true. Very free indeed. I find it strange that you would be so open, knowing what power information holds in our line of work. If what you’ve told us is indeed the truth, then you must realize that you’ve likely damaged your own future. A wife, a son, a decade of peace as you say - I must wonder what could possess you to throw that away?”

_Wouldn’t it have been better to die and protect all of that?_

Shikamaru draws on years of allegiance to casual Hokage who would indulge minor disrespect from the younger generations. He snorts in the Sandaime’s face. “I died, Sandaime-sama,” he says as plainly as he can, “and I woke up in the past with neither understanding nor a single idea for how I came to be here. My time, one way or another, is lost to me.

“If I’m being free with information, it’s because I’m a shinobi of Konoha. I will use whatever weapon is available to me to defend the Leaf. Right now, that weapon is knowledge of the future - and the will to change what I can. You can wield that weapon however you choose, but _my_ goal is to give the next generation” - and Naruto - “more than just nine years of peace.

“So you see, I’m not throwing the future away at all. I’m going to protect it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading chapter 2 of steal the sun! We're still really in Shikamaru's head a lot here, but in the next chapter or so we'll start seeing more characters, which means more dialogue and fun interaction. Bear with me please!
> 
> Also, I got my first 'kill yourself' anon message. I've passed some sort of horrible milestone now. So thanks for that, I guess, you absolutely terrible person. That was exactly what I needed to see Saturday morning. :/ What possesses someone to tell a complete stranger to kill themselves? Awful!


	3. surprise me

**Chapter 3 - surprise me**

The Sandaime isn't impressed with Shikamaru’s grand declarations.

It’s a little relieving, to be honest. He feels more comfortable with his assessment of the old man now. He’d rather hoped that a man who’d lived through two wars and lost all of his students to them in one way or another would see through such an arrogant declaration. Shikamaru himself learned this truth years ago: good intentions and the belief that only your way is correct - that is what villains are made of. Whether the other person Shikamaru meant to test with those words responds as hoped is left to be seen. It is a thought for later, when he isn’t purposely challenging the Sandaime Hokage.

“Bold words,” the man notes perceptively, “for a man who is not by nature bold himself. Hm… I will discuss with the Council what your worth may be, if any. A Yamanaka will, of course, need to verify your story, but I am currently willing to entertain the possibility that what you say is the truth. Putting aside the striking resemblance you bear to the shinobi you claim as your father, I am familiar with space-time jutsu. While not an occurrence I have ever borne witness to, your story is not beyond the realm of possibility.”

Shikamaru and Mugen stay quiet as the old man takes a moment to suck on his pipe. “Before I go, tell me something, Shikamaru-kun. Do you have any information to offer that is actually relevant?”

Shikamaru startles. Two gimlet eyes pin him in place, heavy with censor.

“As you said, I now have a decent idea of the shape Konoha takes in the future - but while nice, that information is but a daydream for a slow day. Future Hokage, war, growth - I expect all of these things. They are always looming on the horizon for old men like me. Oh, the players may change - I am curious who the Go- and Rokudaime may be that in such a short time Konoha has a _Nana_ daime - but little else differs from the imagination…”

The Sandaime sighs. “If you want me to speak for your life when my Council rightfully labels you a stranger and a risk, tell me something I might _not_ expect. Something that might outweigh the considerable danger of keeping someone like yourself in my village.”

 _And you_ are _a risk,_ those eyes seem to say. _Don’t think I've forgotten._ Shikamaru has already declared an intention to the entire room to change the future, and a disinterest in if the Sandaime wants to act on the given information or not. He has implied to the Sandaime Hokage himself that he will follow orders only to the extent that they align with his idea of a better future. To the Sandaime, he is another Danzo Shimura - only there is no span of decades of camaraderie to justify his risk, just an oath of loyalty to the Hokage a pariah boy might one day grow up to be.

“... You want this right now?” Shikamaru asks resignedly.

“Yes.”

Shikamaru bites his cheek on a curse and hunkers over. His mind races. What does he know that’ll make him valuable to the Sandaime where warnings and prophecy don’t?

He tries to think back to this period of his life. Aside from possibly shit-talking the Last Uchiha in Konoha and maybe warning about the impending invasion - both too valuable as trump cards to throw away so easily, with so little exact information on when he is - all he can recall of this general era of his life is how young and stupid he and his friends were. Amazingly stupid, honestly. People learn at their own speeds and all, and they all turned out okay, but damn. It’s a miracle more of them didn’t die.

(Kiba in particular. Shikamaru is always surprised Kiba is alive. Naruto had the devil’s luck and one life for each fox tail, but Kiba just defies logic. And of course Mirai always did her best to be like her cool pseudo-uncle, burning through Shikamaru's life quota for child-induced anxiety. There was nothing left for Shikadai to do to shock his father. Boruto however...)

If asked, Shikamaru blames the direction his thoughts took for what he says to the Sandaime when the man hums judgmentally and makes to stand after a short period of time. There is little thought given. He just blurts out an answer and hopes it’s a decent one.

It isn’t.

“I can babysit!”

The Sandaime settles back into his chair and peers at him underneath the shade of his hat. “Is that a last request?” he asks dryly.

Shikamaru can feel his face flushing. He hasn’t felt so clumsy in years, since a blushing Temari asked how he felt about children over takoyaki, the pair of them so embarrassed that Ino honed in on them from 30 feet away to ask what was up. This, finally, eclipses that moment, because there hadn’t been some ANBU he doesn’t even know snickering quietly in the corner then.

Shikamaru slumps with a grimace, rubbing his neck. “No. Just what came to mind, to be honest.”

“I see,” the Sandaime says, with the slightest of lip twitches. This, finally, seems to have granted Shikamaru some form of mercy. He hums consideringly, then gets up to leave. “Someone will be by later. Have a good morning, Shikamaru-kun.”

“You too,” Shikamaru says awkwardly, “Sandaime-sama.” He glances at Mugen as four chakra presences follow after the Sandaime. “You’re still here, huh?”

Mugen scratches his nose and shrugs. “Tell me about babysitting, Shikamaru-san.”

Shikamaru sighs heavily. “More questions?”

“More questions,” Mugen agrees. “Please answer them all, Shikamaru-san.”

“What's there to tell with babysitting?”

“I have never been tasked with such a mission,” the chuunin confesses carefully.

“Yeah? Probably for the best. Most kids would eat you alive.”

“Why is that?”

With a noise of discontent, Shikamaru lays back carefully and stares up at the ceiling above his bed. It’s pockmarked with little holes, left by some recuperating shinobi and their senbon. There's a tiny smiley face hovering above his right elbow. He rolls onto his side. “Don’t work so hard,” he tells Mugen as he closes his eyes. “Take a break or something.”

“Shikamaru-san?”

“Can’t hear you,” he mutters. “I’m asleep.”

Mugen sighs quietly. “Very well. I will return in the evening, Shikamaru-san.”

When Shikamaru opens his eyes a moment later, the chuunin is gone. “Huh,” he says. It probably doesn’t bode well that that worked.

Shikamaru sighs again and flops an arm over his closed eyes. He’ll figure it out after a nap.

***

Usui Mugen is a liar.

He returns approximately two hours later, after the ANBU change shifts.

Shikamaru has been dozing lightly, mind too active with a suppressed dread to get any proper sleep, but the soft click of the door stirs him.

“Please dress quickly, Shikamaru-san,” Mugen says as a soft weight settles on the bed. Clothing, probably. “Someone would speak with you.”

“Somewhere else this time, huh?” Shikamaru notes as he pushes himself upright, ignoring how his body protests the motion. He pulls the pile of cloth closer and unfolds it.

The clothes are not his own, but they’re a passable imitation, even down to the deer-hide coat he favors. Shikamaru frowns at that as he rubs the leather between his fingers. It’s not _impossible_ to get deerhide in Konoha if you aren’t a Nara, but it isn’t exactly easy either. That man could’ve given Shikamaru anything to wear and it would have sufficed. Yet he gave him this. It’s a telling overture, in case Shikamaru _is_ the Nara he claims to be. And in case he isn’t there is the other item, tucked into the pocket of the dark grey jumpsuit - a simple chain necklace, his wedding band dangling at the end. It’s the real deal, taken from wherever ANBU is storing the possessions he arrived with. Shikamaru slips it around his neck silently and hurries to don the clothing.

Once he’s dressed, Mugen hands over a pair of calf-length boots that he is unsurprised at this point to realize are actually his. His feet settle into familiar grooves in the sole comfortably. Raking his fingers through his hair, he forms a rough tail and holds a hand out to the waiting chuunin. Mugen, as expected, has a ponytail holder ready to hand over - and Shikamaru’s earrings.

When he’s done, he feels more like himself than ever - and it’s irritating, because he knows it was all done for a damn power play. _Steady,_ he reminds himself. _You wanted this._ He turns his sharp gaze on his escort.

“This way please,” Mugen says, gesturing for the door.

“Me first?” Shikamaru asks. The chuunin simply gestures to the door again.

When he steps into the hall, Mugen falls in beside him - and the two ANBU guarding the room Shunshin into sight.

“This way,” the auburn haired male with a dog mask says, setting the path. His voice is young, though his body looks mostly grown. It’s hard to tell with the mask, but Shikamaru guesses he’s somewhere in his teenage years.

Shikamaru glances once at his partner, a bear mask with dark hair, lanky like an adolescent pup, before following. Mugen falls into step beside him, and Bear takes the rear.

They ascend the stairs for two floors, exiting the stairwell into what Shikamaru recognizes as the gathering hall for the hospital’s evacuation routes. There are five routes linked to the hospital. Their party crosses the expanse of the room and takes the third.

So it’ll be the tunnels under the Hokage monument where they meet. A smart choice, Shikamaru acknowledges, drawing on his memory of the evacuation routes. There’s a slight echo, but so long as nobody is around, it’s a safe place to meet without being noted by each and every passing shinobi. The risk comes in that it’s also a smart choice of location for killing him.

A quarter mile in and the built in lights end at the mouth of two openings. One path twists and turns on itself, with multiple openings and dead-ends in order to confuse pursuers. The other is similarly twisting and hazardous, but the correct path is hidden within it.

Dog lights a prepared torch and takes the leftmost path, leading them deeper and deeper underground - and away from the true evacuation route.

A bead of sweat runs down Shikamaru’s back as he reluctantly follows. It would seem the meeting location is even more fitting than he thought.

Deep under Konoha’s foundation, somewhere along the Lost Man’s Path, Danzo Shimura of ROOT awaits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is that Fuu and Torune? Yes. Yes it is. (I guessed at what animals their masks were. It's a dog and a bear, right? What do you guys think???)
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading Chapter 3 of _steal the sun_! I'm aiming to keep to a weekly update schedule with this fic, but it might occasionally be bi-weekly as I look for a new job and apartment. Thank you all for your kudos and kind comments - you give me the encouragement I need to keep going when I get frustrated. Please keep it coming and I hope you enjoyed this latest installment.  <3


	4. every man a liar

**Chapter 4 - every man a liar**

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Danzo-sama,” Shikamaru deadpans, slouching his posture as he walks the final feet into the small cavern his Root escorts led him to. “I hope you haven't been waiting in this cleverly lit cavern for long.”

A single light hangs overhead, dimly illuminating a twenty foot circle in which Shikamaru now stands dead center. No one told him to go there, but he's a smart guy. He understood the purpose. 

Danzo Shimura stands just inside the farthest edge. He does not look as though he has been waiting long. There is a casual watchfulness to him and the way he rests his hands on his walking stick bares more of a resemblance to a general and his sword than an aged man’s crutch. He appears to be alone, but Shikamaru strongly doubts that. In any case, Dog and Bear continue on when Shikamaru stops, and they stand just behind and to Danzo’s either side soon enough. Mugen props up a wall just in the periphery of Shikamaru’s sight to his left, guarding the exit.

Nobody talks as Danzo looks him up and down. “Shikamaru Nara,” the war-hawk says slowly. “Yes, I dare say you are a Nara. You have the look, though I suppose we’ll see if it extends past that. Versed in your clan techniques?”

“I’d demonstrate,” Shikamaru says, “but you seem to have taken precautions to prevent that.”

“By all means, don’t hold back on my account.”

Shikamaru grimaces, but runs through a quick shadow possession hand seal. To absolutely no one’s surprise, with the light so centered on him, his shadow is a short and stunted thing. They all watch it stretch towards Danzo - and then halt with feet to spare. He could find a way to extend it, get it to reach Danzo if he had to, but that would be nothing but a death sentence, and pretty unnecessary besides for what amounts to little more than a clan check. Shikamaru is now proven to be a Nara. Yay. On the surface, he is also now proven to be defenseless. Double yay. He hopes Danzo is pleased with himself.

“So,” he says, pushing away his disquiet and pulling in his shadow. He relaxes his posture into a casual slump. “Is this where you tell me the Sandaime can’t be trusted to do what needs to be done with the information I hold, but you can? Or is this supposed to be where I die?”

Danzo studies him carefully. “You seem to know who I am. I don’t believe I need to say anything to convince you to work with me, Shikamaru Nara. Rather, it is you who shall endeavor to convince me. After all, you are the one who spoke those words earlier, designed to draw me out, is that not correct?”

A beat of silence.

Then, Shikamaru sighs and rubs his neck. “You’re right - I do know who you are. You’re the guy who wants to protect Konoha, no matter how dirty your hands get. I get that. I didn’t understand before, but I do now.” Time for the spiel. God help him, because Danzo might arguably be a more important sell than the Sandaime.

“I’ve got inside knowledge you need to do just that. But telling you what’s coming - or you just taking the information - won’t be enough. You act on one thing the wrong way, the entire future changes, and it’s bye bye foresight. Work with me, take my advice, and you can keep the advantage.”

“And how is that?”

“Because, not to sound arrogant or anything, I am a genius. Because I don’t just know the players, I know their potential and I can infer how any one change might butterfly out and affect what is coming. By yourself, you can try to use my knowledge and you can fail. Maybe you’ll manage for a while, but you’ll wind up dead again at some point and then what’ll be left? Not Root, that’s for sure. Without you, the organization you worked so hard to build falls apart and disbands almost immediately. With me, you not only have insight, you have someone who can help you make sure it lasts beyond you.”

Danzo closes his visible eye and scoffs. “You claim to know who I am, but you know nothing. I have taken your measure, Nara. You want a world of peace, peace with the other villages as our friends. We do not want the same thing. We are not the same. And I do not need anything more from you than what is inside your head - information I do not need your consent to access.”

So Danzo hates the idea of peace. _Got it._ A lot of hazy, decade old memories and impressions are steadily making more and more sense.

“No,” Shikamaru disagrees, a tendril of panic just under the surface giving conviction to his words. “I _had_ that peace - someone blew it up. All those wonders and prosperity, everything we accomplished, all that my friends - my family - _died_ so we could have, and still someone took it all away.” Was Danzo listening? Did he have his attention again? What were the words he needed to say, what was the leverage Shikamaru needed to apply here to make him willing to play along? “I want peace, but I won’t let anyone do again what I saw before I woke up here - so I need Konoha to be stronger. I need there to be fear of retribution. And I need there to be roots in the darkness strong enough to keep the tree alive.”

Danzo is looking at him, but just listening isn’t enough. The Sandaime had listened all damn night and into the morning and had still seemingly been indifferent to Shikamaru’s uses by the end. Antipathy from Danzo won't cut it. It's good enough to walk out of here, but it won’t win his vote when the council and Sandaime are debating what to do with Shikamaru. If the Sandaime is indifferent, then Danzo’s voice will likely be the one to sway him one way or the other between making use of Shikamaru or dumping him in T&I’s lap and wiping his hands of the matter until the report lands on his desk. Obviously, the latter was not appealing to Shikamaru.

What was it he’d told the Sandaime? _**“I will use whatever weapon is available to me to defend the Leaf.”** Danzo_ was a weapon, even if he was one that hung over the Sandaime’s own head whenever it wasn’t in use (and likely Shikamaru’s head if he could pull this off). _**“Right now, that weapon is knowledge of the future-”**_ Shikamaru had pledged his knowledge to be the Sandaime’s weapon, just offered the same deal to Danzo, but Danzo clearly doesn’t want the same toys the Sandaime has, he wants _better. **“- and the will to change what I can.”**_

 _So give him better,_ he thinks, and also, _oh._ Oh. Of course.

Danzo didn’t meet with Shikamaru because he wanted a weapon. He could take the knowledge Shikamaru holds with any Yamanaka operative that he has in Root, and he could certainly do it without coming all the way down here. He wanted a pawn.

 _Action over counsel,_ Shikamaru thinks, and he says, “You already know this game, Danzo-sama; you’ve played it with the Sandaime for years. I’m just asking to be let onto the board. But just so there’s no confusion between us, I’ll be very clear here. Use me and let me use you in turn. Hear me and be heard in turn. See me and be seen.

“Speak for my freedom now and I’ll speak for _you_ when the time comes.”

Danzo eyes him coolly. “When the time comes?”

“Konoha sees three Kage in a little over fifteen years, Danzo-sama. There is… opportunity in that for those who want it.” Carefully now.

“But only if you specifically are alive and allowed to meddle?” the man mocks.

“No,” Shikamaru allows. “You’ll get there on your own. You just die _very suddenly_ before you get beyond the title of Acting Hokage.” _Too much,_ he thinks instantly. _Too. much. Mistake. Regret. Abort._

“Imagine that,” Danzo murmurs.

_Shit._

There is a period of time following that smile that Shikamaru distantly recognizes as the seconds before he dies. He is very certain that’s what they are, and he readies his chakra to do what little he may in those seconds to stave off his death. His mind races.

The light above him - if he can dislodge it or extend its reach, maybe, maybe… They won’t want him dead at first, just immobilized. One of the Root guards would have to be a Yamanaka, for just this sort of situation. Dog, he guesses. Take him out and they’ll have to find another to pry open his mind.

Who is he kidding? Take him out? It’s 4-to-1 and Shikamaru has been a desk ninja for too long. All he’ll accomplish is getting himself killed before they can look in his head, he thinks glumly, and then realizes that that is actually the ideal in this situation. If he’s snuffed out here before Danzo learns anything more, the timeline will just continue on as it was before. Nothing changed - but nothing different. It’s better than Danzo leaving here with everything Shikamaru knows, because… yeah, no. Shikamaru was willing to play subordinate, was willing to tell Danzo more than he really _wanted_ to, but at no point did he want to tell the man _everything_ he’s learned while working underneath the Rokudaime and the Nanadaime.

Geez, what a drag this became. He'd known it was a long shot, but he'd been optimistic - or, you know, desperate - after that talk with the Sandaime. Too much so it seemed. Attempting to convince a man like Danzo to allow a wildcard like Shikamaru to act within Konoha was plain stupid. Especially with only ten year old memories of Danzo’s nature to go on. He should've been more cautious. His father had always been leery of Danzo and Shikamaru hadn’t doubted him, but being wary of a respected elder whose way you stayed out of, who was dead before you understood the full extent of his reach, was different than personally being in the man’s cross-hairs.

Danzo has been playing counterpoint to the Hokage longer than Shikamaru has been alive, and here Shikamaru is, asking to sit at the table with naught but a promise of their mortality and whispers of how to avoid that fate. It isn’t a move that makes friends, it isn’t slow or steady like Shikamaru prefers, and the rashness of it has itched under Shikamaru’s skin the entire walk to this meeting. It was a Naruto move to call Danzo out and ask for his support, pure and simple. Shikamaru has seen immovable enemies back down in the face of Naruto’s indomitable will, impossible odds become more than possible if Naruto decided to face them. Shikamaru had hoped to borrow just a little of that magic - only Shikamaru doesn’t have his Hokage’s raw charisma and now he’s going to pay for it.

But what choice did he have but to try? If he did not - if Danzo doesn’t agree to Shikamaru’s presence in the village this morning - then Shikamaru would have soon found himself having _no_ presence in the village whether he met with Danzo or not. He would find himself shunted from the hospital to T &I, where Danzo would be able to freely take him, take his knowledge, and discard him, all under the protection of the Council’s and Sandaime’s approval. Shikamaru does not imagine he would not do any of it gently. He seems like he still will, but at least Shikamaru will die having tried for a better result.

He likes to think Temari would be proud of him for that, once she got done asking him what he thought he was doing dying in the _past_ of all places, where they couldn't find and properly honor his body. It isn’t a lecture he’s looking forward to.

But those seconds of foreseeing his death pass as all time does and Shikamaru continues to only be dramatic, neither dead nor on his way to becoming dead. It is only he who stands on alert; Danzo’s men do not move. There is no flick of a finger calling for his murder. Danzo’s one-eyed stare is the promise of a thousand tortures in the darkness, but Shikamaru is still alive, because... Because Danzo has decided not to kill him. Yet.

Shikamaru clears his throat nervously and straightens slowly from his slouch. “Oh?”

Danzo hums lowly in response.

Shikamaru begins to reconsider his previous ‘genius’ claim. He is not sure anyone is clever enough to stay out from under the traps within traps that come of a partnership with the head of Root. This man will eat him alive. He remembers very suddenly, in vivid detail, that it is sharingan eyes Danzo has underneath all those bandages, and he relaxes his gathered chakra back into himself as he imagines actually facing this man in combat. He’s not Sasuke, or Kakashi, or Naruto. Chakra won’t do any good here or in any future dealings with this man. Only his mind, and Shikamaru will have to be everything he told Danzo he was and more to survive now that he’s invited the other to utilize him in the future. _Better and more. Be better and more._

“Very well,” Danzo says, when Shikamaru meets his visible eye grimly. He taps a single finger against his walking stick. “You will act on my behalf, Shikamaru Nara, as I act on yours. We will meet again to discuss what... benefits... may be gained from your foreknowledge soon enough, when you have had more time to understand your place in this game you so desperately wish to play with Hiruzen and myself. For now, you may return to your convalescence and to our Hokage’s care.”

Understanding a dismissal if not its cause, Shikamaru slowly nods.

Danzo strikes in that moment.

He is fast, startlingly so, faster even than Dog and Bear who appear to stop Shikamaru’s retreat and pin his arms as he begins to flinch backwards. Danzo’s good arm darts up, two fingers extended and beginning to glow and there are so many ways to kill a man like this, he’s friends with Sakura and Hinata, he _knows_ he’s fucked, but he can’t move. He’s open-mouthed in his surprise and Danzo’s fingers dart right in and clamp onto his tongue, thumb a completely unnecessary hard pressure as chakra transfers from the index and middle fingertips to Shikamaru’s tongue. It’s like scalding hot tea pouring down his throat for a second, two, and then it’s gone, the fingers are gone, Danzo is gone, Dog and Bear are gone, back to their previous positions. Shikamaru can’t move. He can’t- _What?_

Danzo’s gaze flickers to Shikamaru’s left and Mugen straightens. “Now we are done. Take him back, Usui. Perhaps along a path with a view. Konoha is lovely at this time.”

“What did you do?!” Shikamaru demands, hand halfway to his mouth before he stops himself. But he knows. Oh, how he knows. It isn’t only Hinata and Sakura he is friends with after all.

Danzo rests both hands on his stick and re-assumes the power pose he’d held when they’d first arrived. Seeing his own spit glisten on two of those fingers makes what was once an unsettling sight now perversely horrifying. “You may think of it as insurance,” Danzo smiles unkindly. “Or security.”

There is nothing Shikamaru can say to that. _Better and more,_ he thinks jaggedly as he turns and follows Mugen out, Dog shunshining to the front and Bear falling in behind Shikamaru as before. _You have to be better and more if you want to survive that man._ There was a lesson here, probably. He would find it - and never make that mistake around Danzo again.

When their path back draws them down a hallway with a long sliver of a window spanning half the wall, Shikamaru stops and obediently gazes out of it.

Like the last time he saw it, his village is ablaze. It brings him no comfort that this time Konoha is lit up with not fire, but the last rays of a glorious sunset.

It brings him no comfort at all.

***

Shikamaru sleeps fitfully.

His friends are over and Temari is serving tea. Every cup burns worse than the one before.

He can’t bring himself to tell her. He just keeps accepting cup after cup.

No one notices, except Sai, who is also Mugen, and has been giving him a smile over the rim of his own cup. His tea is black like ink, and bubbling.

When Shikamaru looks down, his tea is black like ink, and bubbling.

He opens his mouth.

“Don’t tell anyone,” Sai says. He isn’t smiling anymore.

Everyone around them is laughing, drinking their tea, and smiling. Lee is challenging Naruto to a tea drinking contest that Shikamaru already knows Shino will win. They are all smiling, except for TenTen, who set her tea beside the cup in front of Neji’s picture frame and is surrounded by a ring of weapons, all of which she is polishing, all at the same time. She is telling Hinata their names. There are many.

Sasuke Uchiha is there and he is smiling. Why is Sasuke Uchiha smiling in his home?

Sasuke’s tea is also black, and bubbling, but it doesn’t look hot, and a moment later a small snake that looks like Orochimaru sticks its nose out from beneath a bubble. It kisses Sasuke on the corner of his mouth when he takes a sip. Shikamaru decides that he would really rather not trade cups with Sasuke, if trading the ink black tea had ever been an option at all.

It is very, very hot though. It burns the back of his tongue.

“Shikamaru,” Sai says.

Shikamaru looks back at him and watches him drink all of his black, bubbling tea.

Kindly, he leans across the table and wraps both hands around Shikamaru’s one and the cup within it. It feels sexual, because Sai is adopting a suggestive expression as he does this and he speaks in a suggestive sort of tone. “I will drink it if you want me to,” he says. He pouts in a move that is all Ino. “But you have to promise you won’t tell anyone.”

Sai does not want to drink Shikamaru’s tea. Shikamaru does not know how he knows, because Sai is a better actor in his dreams than in reality, but he knows that Sai does not want to drink the tea. He is just used to drinking it, and so he will drink it for Shikamaru too, to spare him, because that is what friends do. Shikamaru knows this because Sai has been whispering this into his ear.

Shikamaru pushes Sai away gently. “Drink your own tea, Sai.” Sai's tea is like everyone else's now. He curls into Ino’s side and Shikamaru is happy for him.

Shikamaru drinks the tea Temari keeps pouring, cup after cup. Her brothers are here now and she looks happy. He does not tell her it is too hot.

Sai keeps watching him.

He looks sad.

He looks scared.

Sometimes, he looks grateful.

***

When Shikamaru wakes up, he buries his face in his pillow and takes a slow breath. The room smells herbal and he knows without looking that someone - probably the shinobi waiting in the corner of the room - has brought tea in for him.

Shikamaru knows two things in that moment. One, no matter what is asked of him, he can no longer reveal anything he knows about Root and its founder. And two, he really has to pee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *shows up 7 months late with Starbucks* Uh... Yeah... Sorry, guys. I've been busy getting my house ready to sell, finding an apartment, selling the house, moving, helping my mom move, and also trying to find a job. Has not been a fun time, let me tell you.
> 
> This chapter gave me fits, but I'm sick of it, so here you go, lovelies. Slowly, slowly, we edge forward. Thanks for reading!


	5. baseline

**Chapter 5 - baseline**

Over the course of a week, Ayumu Yamanaka becomes Shikamaru’s preferred visitor. 

It is not a great achievement - the only other visitor he has in that time is the confirmed Root operative Usui Mugen - but Shikamaru is used to dealing with brash Yamanaka and Ayumu is… not that.

He is a careful blend of new yet familiar, with personal ticks here and there that register in Shikamaru’s mind as “Ino” or “Inoichi”, while being distinctly his own person. There is no mistaking the family resemblance, whether it is natural or played up to set Shikamaru at ease, yet there is also no confusing this man with those he knew. Ino was pushy, Inoichi-san was lively, and both tended towards distraction as a way of catching enemies off guard.

Ayumu Yamanaka is… quiet. He is a stern-faced man approximately the age Inoichi-san was at his death, impeccable in dress, but tired looking no matter what time of day he comes. If he’s distracting, it’s only because half the time he makes Shikamaru feel like taking a nap out of sympathy and the other half like he should be out contributing to society in some way instead of freeloading.

The dissonance of the familiar and the unfamiliar in his Yamanaka visitor acts as a buffer for Shikamaru from thoughts of his new tongue accessory, a distraction he is grateful for even as he understands that he is being put through conditioning.

Ayumu comes at mealtimes to escort Shikamaru to the bathroom, prepares tea for the two of them, and shares meals and several hours of each day with Shikamaru. He does not go out of his way to become Shikamaru’s friend, but he is strategic in his conversational overtures and he chooses topics well. He’s polite and unhurried, despite both of them knowing he is only there to gather information. And, frustratingly, he does gather it. Shikamaru sometimes gives him the runaround, but Ayumu does not appear to mind the passing of time between each morsel and Shikamaru knows a lost game when he plays it. 

Ayumu lies to Shikamaru as much as anyone else, but there is an underlying ritual to everything the man does that both reveals himself and manages to charm Shikamaru both. Shikamaru does not, for example, know what the real day and time are, but that glimpse of Danzo’s gave him enough of an idea that he knows Ayumu is lying when he starts each session trying to ground Shikamaru with a recitation of the time. He knows that Ayumu comes exactly six hours after each visit, whether he claims it has been eight hours or six hours and ten minutes. He knows that Ayumu acts indifferent to Shikamaru’s claimed heritage, but he is always looking when Shikamaru acts in a way that speaks of his parents, and he sees everything. He prepares tea with experienced, precise movements one day, lazy indifference another, and upon reading _something_ from Shikamaru during that time, continues on with the more casual ceremony the next day and all others, despite a noted preference for the first.

At no point during his visits does he ever use his clan’s techniques. He never needs to.

Shikamaru is both impressed and threatened by this man the Sandaime has set upon him. He wonders what happened to Ayumu Yamanaka in his original timeline. He was not at Ino’s wedding, but there is no shortage of horrible things coming to lead a shinobi to their death. Anything could have killed him. Anything could kill him still. Shikamaru should try harder not to like him.

Usui Mugen is a far less enjoyable companion. His visits, if anything, remind Shikamaru of having his brothers-in-law in Konoha during the last days of his and Temari’s engagement. He is annoyingly present.

The Root operative comes when he should be there, acting as a rule-conscious interrogator, and he comes when he shouldn’t, acting as Danzo’s dead fish eyes. Shikamaru won’t say there’s no getting rid of him, because Shikamaru _can_ get Mugen to go away, but he does not stay gone and he thinks unerringly of finding sand eyeballs in his living room and a small fly puppet in his bedroom. (The eyeballs were tolerable and a long talk with Gaara cleared that one up. The fly was not, and Kankurou and Shikamaru both ended up in Ino’s debt for over a year to make up for healing them the day of the wedding before Temari could see.)

He’s incessant. The only way to keep Mugen at bay for any significant portion of time is to keep _Ayumu_ around longer, which means that Shikamaru rarely gets any peace to just think in silence.

It would be concerning -- if Shikamaru hadn’t grown up tuning out the biggest mouthed kunoichi there was.

During one of the official sessions with Mugen, where Shikamaru knew that nothing said would have any value later and where Mugen himself had already admitted to being there mostly to bookend his visits from Ayumu Yamanaka and to annoy him, Shikamaru questions this path he is planning to undertake. The decision to aid Konoha is an easy one. The how of it is subject to change, but that’s pretty typical for any strategy. The who… Shikamaru finds himself questioning the who.

He needs to make an ally out of the Hokage - but does he need the Hokage to be Hiruzen Sarutobi?

The Sandaime is not a familiar mind to him, not like Tsunade-sama is. He does not think it is wistful thinking alone that tells him he could accomplish more with Tsunade-sama’s cooperation than the Sandaime’s. He’s worked with her before and, frankly, his memory of past events is clearer for her reign than the Sandaime’s. After that first big mission as a chuunin, everything became more real for Shikamaru. He doesn’t have that clarity of memory for his academy or genin days, nor the understanding of the Sandaime that he needs to stay a step ahead. Just because he could gain that understanding doesn’t mean that he _should_ go out of his way to, not when a neater solution may present itself soon enough.

There is also the fact that it has been some time since the Sandaime visited. Just because Shikamaru understands the strategy in that does not mean it doesn’t concern him. He has already fallen prey to Danzo’s trap once. Getting himself sealed like any other of the man’s tools was costly, because now Shikamaru can’t offer Danzo up to the Sandaime as leverage into a position of greater trust. He needs to figure out something else he can do to win over the Sandaime for when he’s released - and he knows he will be with Danzo in his corner - but he can’t do anything until the old man shows his wrinkly face.

Nor can he choose whether the Sandaime’s support is worth courting or not when he still does not know where in the past he arrived. He needs to know. If it is during his genin days, then the question becomes whether or not he should save the Sandaime when Orochimaru attacks with Suna and Oto. If he plans to help the Sandaime survive, then Shikamaru will need to stay ahead of both Danzo _and_ the Sandaime. But if he should let history play out, focusing his energies on first surviving Danzo and then recruiting Tsunade, he may well be able to get out from under the Root director’s thumb. And if it is earlier, during his academy years, then losing the Sandaime’s goodwill would be tantamount to failure; he will _need_ the Sandaime to help him survive Danzo while he waits for the future to come for them.

He knows what Naruto would choose. But Shikamaru is not Naruto.

Shikamaru keeps thinking and plotting, circles upon circles, and wills the Sandaime to visit him again.

It’s all he can do: think and wait for someone to let something slip. Or for Danzo to decide it’s time for Shikamaru to be useful.

Whichever comes first.

***

“Which village was it,” Ayumu asks, “that attacked the day you arrived here? Do you know?”

It’s taken three weeks for the Yamanaka to build up to this conversation. Of course it happens over afternoon tea (Shikamaru knows, outside of this room, that it is probably closer to a nightcap, but he lets Ayumu have his falsehoods and his caffeine. Who is he to judge?), with Shikamaru’s favorite leaf steeped just so. Ayumu’s consideration gives him away, announcing his intentions to Shikamaru long before he begins to shift the conversation towards more serious topics - another accommodation, mistakable for a kindness in the right light.

Shikamaru frowns and tilts his hand until the knuckles press into his lips. “It wasn’t a village,” he says eventually.

They had thought so once. It wasn’t any of the strongest - not Suna, or Kumo, or Ame - but there was unrest in Kawa. Shinobi from Tanigakure were spotted where they weren’t supposed to be. The daimyo called for stricter regulations for their neighbor, citing bad relations. Skirmishes slowly began to crop up. Friends began meeting up just a little more often for training. They were shinobi - they could read between the lines. But at the center of it all, Shikamaru’s Hokage stood firm and Naruto said: **No**.

“Ah. A rebel group then.”

“Yes.” And no. “There was peace between the villages. But…” But peace was not what everyone wanted.

“Peace does not suit all,” Ayumu says knowingly, as though reading Shikamaru’s thoughts. When Shikamaru looks, he is examining his tea with a distant expression on his normally stern features. He is present, but his thoughts are in the past. “Shinobi trained in wartime often struggle to find a new purpose when peacetime asks for more patience and diplomacy than they were ever taught. Some succeed - some don’t.”

Slowly, Shikamaru nods.

“The strong survive and the weak do not,” Ayumu continues, turning his attention back towards Shikamaru. “That is how it is often put. I have not found that to be entirely accurate. It isn’t about surviving, but adapting. About learning when to go with the flow and when to push against the current - and it is different for each person. Sometimes those going against find like minds in others and they create a new path. Sometimes it is good for all. Sometimes it isn’t. That is just the way it is.”

A sip of tea and Ayumu asks, “Why do you think conflict is stirred up during peacetime?” 

_Because a humanoid plant creature lost its mother and can’t get over it,_ Shikamaru thinks uncharitably. But really, that isn’t the question Ayumu is asking and that isn’t the answer.

_Why did the rebel group attack your Konoha?_

Shikamaru’s thoughts drift to the day he came to this time. There was no Zetsu to influence the dissatisfied then, to stir up the unhappiness until it boiled over. War loomed on the horizon and Konoha burned. Zetsu didn’t do that - humans did. Shinobi did.

Friends did.

_Why did it happen?_ Ayumu asked. Shikamaru doesn’t want to begin to guess. He’d thought he’d known. Even Sasuke had agreed with him. Was that where they’d gone wrong? Sasuke Uchiha agreed with Shikamaru and neither of them stopped to think that that was strange. Well, whatever, they’d both been wrong in the end. Shikamaru died. Konoha burned. And if that thrice damned cat of an Uchiha survived, he would be all Naruto had to help him wade through what happened, which meant there would only be _more_ bloodshed.

_Why did it happen?_ Shikamaru scoffs. All he has are suspicions, rooted in failure. Suspicions and useless apologies that undid nothing and spared him no mercies.

When Ayumu doesn’t want to answer a question he often returns it with a question of his own. Shikamaru hears himself doing the same now. “Why?”

“When people lash out during peacetime, when they plot against the current system, it is not because they hate peace, Shikamaru-san. Peace is a concept that cannot be so easily defined as to declare war on it. Rather, what is despised and what is fought against are the effects of the current path of peace and the establishment that enforces it.

“I fought in the Third Shinobi War. When it ended, there were so many complaints about the false peace we were in. Shinobi from every village it seemed were all complaining that the war ending robbed them of the jobs they were so good at. As I said before, wartime shinobi flounder in peacetime; peacetime shinobi flounder in times of war. We struggled. Some… struggled more than most. They sought to return to a time of war, to gain back their usefulness.

“They did not know what to do with themselves and that was the real problem. They did not know how to leave the war behind, how to reinvent themselves and change to fit the new world, so they raged and tried to make the world change instead. It had already changed once - what was one more time?” Ayumu snorted softly. “They failed obviously. Not because they could not stir up trouble - they were absolutely a thorn in the Yondaime’s side - but because in reality, it was not the peace that stole from them their purpose, nor was it the war that granted it to them. And starting fights could not cure that level of dissatisfaction, no matter what they told themselves.”

“Most people figure that kind of thing out themselves,” Shikamaru says stiffly. “Konoha wasn’t attacked because of _job dissatisfaction_.” That wasn’t - That wasn’t what happened.

“Was it not? You said there was peace between all five of the major villages; how smooth of a transition could that have been? What jobs were there to be had in this future of yours? Towards what path did the shinobi children move?”

Ayumu’s single functional eye trails along Shikamaru’s body, noting his light muscle definition, the reduced calluses. Someone else might have smiled to see their point so proven before them; Ayumu only frowns more. “When your being is entrenched in the system, it can be hard to look past it and see what else there is. Aren’t you proof of that yourself, Shikamaru-san? It does not go remiss to invite a little help from our friends and to offer it in return in a changing climate. And, too, in the interest of peace, to offer direction to those who are not our friends.”

Extending a hand - helping others find purpose when their own was lost… Had they not _done that_? Shikamaru had thought that they had. There had to be another reason, something more than just this to explain the actions of that group. He doesn’t know what, but there has to have been something else. They would have _noticed _otherwise.__

__Yet still, Konoha burned. Still, someone he’d considered a friend had stood across from him and said, “This is the only way.” before striking him down, _killing him_ except that he ended up here instead. Those were not the actions of one who had adapted to a peaceful existence._ _

__Maybe they had failed. Somewhere, somehow, they had failed._ _

__But others had failed them too. Shikamaru and Sasuke were wrong about some things; they were not wrong about it all._ _

__“Sometimes,” Shikamaru says carefully, “it isn’t only those stuck in the past causing the problems. Sometimes others look ahead - too far ahead - and lose sight of what’s important. A helping hand and _direction_ won’t stop that.”_ _

__“No,” Ayumu says calmly, “but I imagine that is true of any leader.”_ _

__Shikamaru sits back. “Who said it was a leader causing the trouble?”_ _

__Ayumu just looks at him. _Was it not?_ his good eye seems to ask._ _

__Shikamaru narrows his eyes and says nothing. There’s nothing he can say. Ayumu clearly knows._ _

___Does he think it was the Hokage?_ he wonders. _Or, even here with what little I’ve given him, does he already see the truth of it?__ _

__Shikamaru has suspected since that first meeting that whatever Ayumu Yamanaka did with his time before he was assigned to Shikamaru, it wasn’t Interrogation. His techniques didn’t gel with what Shikamaru would’ve expected from that unit, yet either the Sandaime or the Council put him on this assignment. There was a reason for that even if it wasn’t clear to him, so Shikamaru knew to be cautious._ _

__He thinks those reasons are beginning to become clearer now._ _

__“Hey,” he says rudely, thoroughly done with their conversation up until now. “What was it that you used to do again?”_ _

__“When I am not with you, I cultivate a greenhouse for my clan,” Ayumu tells him, lifting an eyebrow._ _

__“No,” Shikamaru sighs, rubbing his face with one hand roughly, because of course he manages a greenhouse. Each family in the Yamanaka clan keeps a greenhouse, supplying both the variety of flowers sold in the main family’s shop and bases for antidotes and poisons to the hospital. Knowing which greenhouse Ayumu kept up would give Shikamaru a good idea of his relation to Ino and Inoichi, but that’s not what Shikamaru wants to know. Ayumu, the ass, is going to make him use his words. “When you were an active shinobi,” -- because he isn’t now. Not with that eye and the stiff way he moves, let alone the sheer amount of time Ayumu has spent ingratiating himself into Shikamaru’s company this last conversation excluded. There’s no way he’s still being given missions outside the village. -- “what was it that you did?”_ _

__For a moment, he doesn’t think Ayumu will tell him. His companion frowns at him, more than his usual resting expression of disapproval, and appears to be weighing his options. It strikes Shikamaru that the polite thing to do would be to retract his question; Ayumu has done the same for him a few times when Shikamaru clearly didn’t want to discuss something. But he doesn’t, because he’s actually kind of irritated right now and he doesn’t feel like being polite._ _

__Whether he realizes this himself or comes to the decision organically, Ayumu sighs and says simply, “I was a jounin sensei.”_ _

__Shikamaru… is honestly surprised by that. He’d pegged Ayumu as a jounin, yeah, but he’d figured he was more… tokubetsu than full rank. Trying to picture the guy in front of him with genin is more an act of hilarity than anything. The kids must’ve driven him crazy if his preference for order had been in play back then and not a result of being a sensei._ _

__It does relate him in his mind to Shino however, and he wonders if Ayumu’s sense of propriety and stern nature are more akin to the academy instructor’s exacting nature than he’d first thought - order used to disguise uncertainty. Damn. Another potential opening for Ayumu to use to endear himself to Shikamaru._ _

__He pushes forward with more questions in the hopes he hasn’t revealed too much of himself already. “Yeah? For what kind of team? What was their orientation?”_ _

__Ayumu responds with a question of his own. “What do you think?”_ _

__“Intelligence,” Shikamaru says honestly. “I’ll go out on a limb and guess that you specialized in information gathering.”_ _

__“Hm.” Ayumu smiles at him just a little. It’s a strange look on him, but it isn’t bad. There are faint lines around his mouth that deepen and soften the harshness of his usual mien, making Ayumu at once more approachable and gentling some of Shikamaru’s own ire. The resemblance to Inoichi-san is suddenly very striking. They aren’t brothers - Shikamaru knows Ino’s relations enough to say that with certainty, but there is no doubt in his mind now of a close relation between Ayumu and Inoichi-san. Cousins, maybe. “Not bad, Shikamaru-san. Not bad at all.” He taps his finger on the table thoughtfully before offering up, “They were an infiltration team, to be specific.”_ _

__Shikamaru’s eyebrows fly up. A _genin_ infiltration team?_ _

__“That surprises you,” Ayumu notes._ _

__Somehow, Shikamaru seems to have confirmed something for him in that reaction. He grimaces at the realization, but nods. “Konoha doesn’t normally train genin for infiltration.”_ _

__“Yes,” Ayumu says, bringing his tea up and looking at him over the rim, “they do. But not this year.”_ _

__“What’s so special about this year?” Shikamaru promptly asks._ _

__Ayumu hums noncommittally. “I wonder.”_ _

__Shikamaru slouches back down and looks away. He is curious now, wonders what hint was buried in that slip of detail, but there’s no point in thinking about it right now. Not while Ayumu is still watching him. Or maybe he’s just still weirded out by that moment with the smile. He’d rather think about it later when he’s alone either way._ _

__“They any good at it?” he asks, then clarifies, “Your team, I mean.”_ _

__He tries to imagine Shikadai being placed on an infiltration team upon graduation from the academy and fails. Unless their target was in Suna, he can’t see that working out. Then, for the morbid amusement of it, he tries to imagine any of the genin from his own graduating class learning infiltration at that age. He is disconcerted to find that he actually _can_ imagine a team formation that would have done well in that specialization._ _

__What would Naruto have been had someone seen his Oiroke no Jutsu and taken it in a new direction? _Less obsessed with Sasuke,_ he snorts in his mind, probably too optimistically. It would never have worked out though. Shino was a clan heir and-_ _

__Shikamaru’s thoughts stop._ _

__“This year?” he repeats quietly, turning back to look at Ayumu. He knows he looks too intent, but he doesn't care._ _

__The older Yamanaka stares placidly back at him. “They very firmly went in none of the directions I chose for them, almost to the detriment of our teamwork. But yes, my genin grew into excellent infiltrators and chuunin. They make me proud.”_ _

__He pauses and then, holding Shikamaru’s gaze, adds softly, “As Shikamaru-kun makes his sensei proud, I am sure.”_ _


	6. whichever lie you choose to believe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a heads up, this is a two-chapter update so if you haven't already, be sure to go and read chapter 5 first, okay? <3

**Chapter 6 - whichever lie you choose to believe**

After Ayumu leaves, Shikamaru stays awake for a while, his head spinning with possibilities.

Shikamaru-kun, not Shikamaru-san. It was as good as confirmation. Oh, Ayumu could be screwing with him - he never said Asuma’s name, so it’s possible that he is merely planting an emotional trap akin to the morning-afternoon-night trickery… But Shikamaru doesn’t think so.

No, that’s not entirely accurate, he acknowledges ruefully. He doesn’t _want_ to think so. Shikamaru wants Ayumu to have told him the truth. He wants to believe that it’s the year of his genin graduation, the year of the chuunin exams, the year when _everything_ changed.

He wants to believe it.

But can he?

Conflicted yet full of burgeoning hope, Shikamaru eventually settles down to sleep.

Maybe it was the earlier conversation. Maybe it was the thought of his genin days, when the chuunin exams were just some dumb test Ino, Asuma-sensei, and his mother nagged him into signing up for or maybe it was the thought of seeing everyone again, young and carefree and obnoxious...

He dreams of Tanigakure no Sato.

***

The Hidden Valley and its worsening relations with Konoha was the first large official test of Naruto’s leadership. It… went.

And went.

And went.

Nearly a year later, Sasuke stepped into Naruto’s office, newly arrived and looking less than pristine after years on the road. Naruto had greeted him with a too loud laugh, screaming eyes, and a joke that wasn’t really a joke: everything that could go wrong had gone wrong.

Sasuke paused and looked at Naruto with such pity that Shikamaru, at Naruto’s side, had to turn his face away. “Dobe, why do you think that is?”

Sasuke was not a merciful man, but for Naruto he tried, as well as he could, to not be cruel. He did not let Naruto have even a moment of self-recrimination. He dragged him forward, planted him where he needed to be, and gave him a hard nudge to focus; he always knew exactly what Naruto needed and Shikamaru hated that as much as he was glad to see it now.

“Stop wasting your time on Tanigakure,” he said. “They aren’t your problem. Your problem is here.” And, damningly, he tapped the capital on the map. The capital of Fire Country.

Shikamaru closed his eyes and cursed himself a fool.

Nearly a year of work had gone into fixing a relationship that seemingly could not be held together, hours of strain and stress, leaving his Hokage confused and determined and, at times, so very angry. And for what?

Sasuke didn’t pull his punches when he gave his report, even when Naruto buried his face in his hands and started laughing weakly and Shikamaru ordered him to stop talking. There was no denying the truth: they were failing to mend the ties with the Hidden Valley because they were _meant to fail_. The daimyo was working against them, Sasuke said. When the shinobi of Tanigakure spat of invasion plans and instigation from the Fire Country, Sasuke said, _they were not wrong_. It was all blowing up in their faces in one undeniable report and there was only one thing to be done.

Naruto left for Keishi that night.

Sasuke stayed behind with Shikamaru.

“I can’t send Sasuke,” Naruto said privately to Shikamaru before he left, sad and betrayed and, under it all, angry. A shadow clone had already departed to tell Hinata he wouldn’t be home. Another was just returning, having collected anything he might need to slip out of the village quietly. A third would stay to maintain the ruse that Naruto was still in the village. “He’ll just make it worse.”

Shikamaru agreed. Making things worse was Sasuke’s specialty. “We’ll look after things, Naruto. Go. Fix this.”

“Well?” Sasuke said sharply, when Naruto’s clone dozed off in the early hours of the morning and Shikamaru was massaging his temples.

“Well what?” he sniped. He was tired, exhausted down to his bones, and for all that he knew none of this was Sasuke’s fault, his was a very easy face to blame for why he couldn’t be home just then.

Sasuke frowned at him with a single-eyed, unimpressed glower. Someone who never stuck around shouldn’t get to look so judgmental of Shikamaru, but whatever. Here they were - Shikamaru yawning and Sasuke passing judgement.

“I protect Konoha from the external threats - that’s my job now,” Sasuke said slowly, to better express his opinion of Shikamaru’s current worth presumably. “It’s _your_ job to protect Konoha from the internal threats. So _do your job_ , Nara. Who do we need to look at? Where is the enemy that you’ve left rooting around and chopping away at the village’s foundation?”

“You just told Naruto hours ago that the enemy was in Keishi,” Shikamaru snapped. He was tired enough that he actually pointed at the map, as if the other man needed a visual reminder.

The worst thing was, the part that Shikamaru always remembered the clearest, was that Sasuke didn’t even snap back at him. He just looked at him with such pity that Shikamaru had to turn his face away.

Fuck.

***

_Fuck._

When Shikamaru wakes up, he is poorly rested and groggy. He always sleeps poorly when dreaming of memories, but in this case he does not think he has slept long at all. He tries to determine what woke him.

The first thing he sees is Usui Mugen, smiling distractedly at him. It’s enough to make a guy want to suffocate on his pillow, but before Shikamaru can consider that action very far, he cottons on to his other visitor and their telltale cloud of smoke.

Lungs drawing in the nicotine like a lifeline, Shikamaru sits up and faces the Sandaime Hokage. Nearly three weeks after their last visit, the Sandaime looks as tired as Shikamaru feels, but he looks infinitely more amused for their time apart. It doesn’t take Nara intellect to figure out why.

“I don’t think I’m dressed for this,” he mutters, scratching at his horribly overgrown beard and conscious of the mess that is his hair. He's tried to manage the beard with the few products Ayumu allows him, but it needs to be cut more than anything and shears are thin on the ground when you're a prisoner.

A hair tie hits him in the face. When he glares at Mugen, the chuunin holds his hands out in an effusive shrug.

“I apologize, Hokage-sama,” Mugen says, because sure, apologize to the Sandaime and not Shikamaru, “but I’m given to believe that hair up is as put together as Shikamaru-san gets. Hopefully he is less offensive now?”

The Sandaime chuckles around his contraband pipe and nods agreeably. “How are you feeling, Shikamaru-kun?”

“Like I’ve only been asleep for an hour or two,” he says bluntly, setting his hair in its customary tail and attempting to neaten his travesty of a beard. It’s a lost cause, but it gives him something to focus on as he watches first Mugen, then the Sandaime. “How about yourself, Sandaime-sama?” _Why are you here now?_

“Tired and in need of a vacation,” the Sandaime huffs, blowing a massive cloud of smoke from his nostrils.

“...Why?”

“The Hokage is a very busy man, Shikamaru-san,” Mugen chides, looking politely offended. Even his hair looks spikier with emotion. “As a supposed advisor to the Nanadaime, surely you know this.”

“Right,” Shikamaru agrees tiredly, planting his attention more firmly on the Sandaime. “So you’re overworked, but decided to stop by and see me after all this time. I’m very honored, Sandaime-sama. I will, however, admit to now being a little concerned that you’re here to reduce your workload as it relates to me.”

The Sandaime’s lips twitch. “Be at ease, Shikamaru-kun. I apologize for waking you, but it is for nothing so nefarious as that. I in fact came to deliver some good news to you. After a great deal of back and forth, the Council has agreed with my decision to accept you into our village. When I return, we will put that memory and famed Nara intellect of yours to use in defending Konoha. Prepare yourself for that.”

“Of course, Sandaime-sama,” Shikamaru says all in one exhale. Then, “When you return?”

“Yes,” the Sandaime says calmly, “that reminds me… Perhaps you can be of some use even now. What can you tell me about the chuunin exams, Shikamaru-kun?”

“The… chuunin exams,” he repeats dumbly. He can’t help it. What? _What?_ He’s only just gotten a suggestion that it was That Year and now the same day he’s being told the exams are here already? He feels… wrong-footed suddenly, like he should have known, should be rolling quicker with these sudden punches, but he is groggy and confused and, under it all, increasingly concerned. “When are they - the exams? How soon do they start?”

If they don’t let him out until _after_ the exams, it’ll be too late. The Sandaime will die, which is one dilemma taken out of his hands, but Tsunade won’t become Hokage for months and if the Sandaime dies while Shikamaru is still locked up then the _only_ one to vouch for him…

Will be Danzo Shimura. Who could blame the Sandaime’s death on Shikamaru to the Council and get all the authority he needs to just take Shikamaru’s knowledge by force and nevermind the body.

Yeah…. No. Nope. Not happening.

Shikamaru opens his mouth - trump cards are only good if you’re alive to _use them_ \- and is neatly cut off by the Sandaime answering his last question.

“The chuunin exams began a month ago in Kumogakure. The third, public exam will take place in a few days times. As several promising Konoha genin have made it to the finale, I will be traveling to witness their battles.”

Shikamaru licks his lips and closes his mouth. “Kumogakure?” he asks distantly, straining his mind to recall any details of a chuunin exam in _Kumo_ of all places.

Two, no, one? One year before he graduated? Was that it? Shikamaru had been put forward to graduate early despite his awful marks because Mizuki-sensei _knew_ he just hated the schoolwork and was convinced that being in the real world was all Shikamaru needed to reach his potential. Shikamaru had been against it - he wanted to stay with Chouji - and then the chuunin exams happened in Kumogakure. They were awful for Konoha. Whatever happened was bad enough that Shikaku and Yoshino presented a united front when they told Mizuki-sensei in no uncertain terms that Shikamaru would _not_ be graduating early.

Shit. Was it one year until graduation - and then the six months as a genin before the invasion? Had Ayumu lied to him after all?

Or did Ayumu tell him the truth and it is the Sandaime who is lying now?

Shikamaru looks up from his steepled fingers. The Sandaime’s face is impassive. Truth or lie? Truth or lie? Shikamaru can’t tell -

“Do you have something to offer, Shikamaru-kun?” the Sandaime asks, but it is with the interest of one who does not particularly care either way, as though this were but a curiosity instead of a test, and Shikamaru presses his tongue and its hidden seal hard to the roof of his mouth in frustration.

Does he have a year and a half or does he have something under six months to work with this man? Which is it?

(Does he need the Sandaime Hokage? Can he save him?)

( _Should_ he?)

In his periphery, he catches Mugen watching him with interest.

Shikamaru breaks his steeple. 

“The chuunin exams,” he says slowly, “are going to be a disaster. You need to prepare yourself for that.”

“Oh?” the Sandaime asks. “How so?”

Shikamaru grimaces. “I don’t… really know the details.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and thank you for reading the latest _steal the sun_ chapters! Terribly sorry for the long (LONG) delay. I've both moved across country and started a new job in the meantime. It's been very hectic, but I promise I'm not abandoning this fic for better or worse. Hopefully it won't take me another 8 months to update. *winces* Also, I promise that next chapter things will Start Happening.
> 
> Thank you again for joining me on this journey and for all the lovely comments. You guys help keep me going when Shikamaru makes me want to smack my head on a table. <3 You're the best.


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